On May 13, 2017, the Pensacola chapter of the League of Women Voters held a business meeting at the Pensacola Yacht Club. The group's Education Committee, headed by Dr. Paula MONTGOMERY, featured Mr. Paul WALLIS, Chief Probation Officer of the 1st Judicial Circuit as guest speaker. This speech is part of the League of Women Voters pipeline-to-prison project of its Education Committee.
Mr. Wallis has at least 30 years of experience in the criminal justice system, including the last 10 years as Chief Probation Officer for Florida's Judicial Circuit 1. This circuit includes Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, and Walton counties. Mr. Wallis has served with the Manatee County Sheriff's Office (9 years), the Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office (3 years), the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (18 years), as the Assistant Superintendent of Okaloosa Regional Detention Center (3 years), the Superintendent of Escambia Regional Detention Center (4 years), and the Regional Director South Region of Detention Services (10).
The following videos cover the event as it happened.
Introduction: Dr. Paula Montgomery
Mr. Paul Wallis, Chief Probation Officer, Circuit 1
On January 30, 2017, the League of Women Voters' education committee headed by Dr. Paula Montgomery, held its latest community forum on the newly renamed "Pipeline-to-Prison." The reason for the name change was to broaden consideration of factors that lead children into the pipeline that deposits them in prison.
The major focus of the forum, also sponsored by the University of West Florida's School of Social Work, was the film, Resilience. According to the "about" page of the film:
"Researchers have recently discovered a dangerous biological syndrome caused by abuse and neglect during childhood. As the new documentary Resilience reveals, toxic stress can trigger hormones that wreak havoc on the brains and bodies of children, putting them at a greater risk for disease, homelessness, prison time, and early death. While the broader impacts of poverty worsen the risk, no segment of society is immune. Resilience, however, also chronicles the dawn of a movement that is determined to fight back. Trailblazers in pediatrics, education, and social welfare are using cutting-edge science and field-tested therapies to protect children from the insidious effects of toxic stress—and the dark legacy of a childhood that no child would choose."
Essentially, stress from larger societal forces like poverty, but also living in neighborhoods with high levels of daily violence among other factors, changes the way the brain gets wired up. While this new brain wiring can be reversed over time, the new wiring leads to greater individual-level problems.
PANEL DISCUSSANTS:
The League of Women Voters assembled a stellar panel of experts. The panel discussants included:
Dr. James Arruda, professor of Psychology and associate dean for the College of Health at the University of West Florida. Dr. Arruda specializes in cognitive neuroscience and focuses on brain-behavior relationships.
Dr. James Burns, professor of Pediatrics with the University of Florida's College of Medicine. Dr. Burns is also the director of Adolescent Medicine & Pediatric Residency at Sacred Heart Children's Hospital in Pensacola.
Ms. Sabrina 'Bree' Conklin is a licensed Clinical Social Worker and earned a master's degree in Social Work from the University of West Florida. She is only a few months away from receiving her doctorate in Social Work from the University of Tennessee. She is also an adjunct professor of Social Work at the University of West Florida.
Dr. Kimberly L. Day is an assistant professor at the University of West Florida. She earned her PhD in Human Development from Virginia Tech. She was a postdoctoral fellow with the Offord Centre for Child Studies at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada.
Dr. Dione Moultrie King is an assistant professor in the Department of Social Work at the University of West Florida. She received her doctorate from the University of Georgia. She was also a middle school teacher.
Ms. Tranassa S. White is a native of Pensacola and has lived here most of her life. She is a single parent of a nine-year old son. She is currently attending Pensacola State College to obtain her BA in Cybersecurity. She is employed as a traffic manager at Cumulus Media Inc. She contributed real-world experiences related to the Resilience movie. She was an inspiration to the audience.
Left: Ms. Sabrina 'Bree' CONKLIN and Dr. James BURNS
Left: Dr. Dione Moultrie KING, Dr. James ARRUDA, and Ms. Tranassa WHITE
Dr. Kimberly L. DAY
VIDEO PRESENTATIONS
Introduction: Dr. Paula MONTGOMERY
Panel Introduction: Ms. Haley RICHARDS, Co-president, League of Women Voters
On November 17, 2016, Dr. Julie Patton, head of the Race and Reconciliation project of the Department of Social Work at the University of West Florida, hosted its third workshop, "Being an effective ally in the Age of Trump." The room was filled to capacity and the mixed-race audience was engaged and animated.
The group's Facebook page is located HERE. The next event will be held in January.
Dr. Lusharon Wiley, senior associate dean of students at UWF moderated the panel. She gave a brief presentation on "Educating yourself on issues of diversity."
Panelists included:
Chief David Alexander, Pensacola Police Department; he spoke on "Can a person support Black Lives Matter and the police at the same time?" Listen to his talk for his challenging answer.
Dr. Paula Montgomery, head of the education committee of the Pensacola branch of the League of Women Voters, spoke on "Fighting the school-to-prison pipeline."
Mr. Jonathan Pace, a concerned father who moved to Pensacola three years ago from Disneyland East, I mean, Washington, D.C., addressed the question: "How can white people be effective in their advocacy?"
After the panelists gave their presentations, the floor was open to questions and comments from the audience.
Below, are videos of the entire presentation, with the exception of the moment of mindfulness that opened the workshop.
On October 26, 2016, the League of Women Voters in collaboration with the Southern Poverty Law Center, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Coffee Party, and the "Race and Reconciliation" program of the Department of Social Work at the University of West Florida hosted its sixth program on the School-to-Prison Pipeline. The focus of the sixth program was the novel idea that prison is No Place For A Child.
The No Place For A Child coalition consists of the Southern Poverty Law Center, the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, the Anti-Defamation League, Escambia Youth Justice Coalition, the Public Interest Law section of the Florida Bar, the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, the National Council of Jewish Women, The Children's Campaign, the Project on Accountable Justice, the James Madison Institute, the Campaign for Youth Justice, Florida's Children First, R Street, the Florida Juvenile Justice Association, the Florida Council of Churches, the Florida PTA, the Jacksonville Juvenile Justice Coalition, and Families of Youth Incarcerated.
The program started with an excellent 30+ minute documentary on the deliberate resegregation of St. Petersburg's Pinellas County School District schools. As a result of the school board's decision to end integration through busing and not transferring dollars with the students to now predominantly Black schools, the school district created a school district bifurcated by race and class. Essentially, Black children in the school district lost a decade's worth of schooling due to hiring uncertified teachers, providing inadequate resources, and amping up arrests of Black children for non-violent offenses. Eventually, organized parents were able to breakthrough the complete indifference of the school board to the effects of its earlier decision.
The documentary was part 3 of a 5-part series put together by executive producers Norman Lear, Shonda Rhimes, and Common (Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr.). The five-part series is shown on the Epix cable channel. The following link is for the trailer on Pinellas County School District. The excellent Democracy Now! website has a 19-minute interview with the creators and clips from various episodes.
Previous CJ's Street Report blog reports have covered the five School-to-Prison Pipeline events. The blog for January 29, 2016, summarized the previous three events. The December 4, 2015, blog covered the Paper Tigers movie. The April 22, 2016, blog covered the response to the series by the Escambia County School District. You can find the previous blog articles here: 02 SEPT 201527 OCT 201504 DEC 201529 JAN 2016 22 APR 2016.
TONIGHT'S PANELISTS
Ms. Kelley RICHARDS, Public Defender for First Judicial Circuit, has 32 years of experience in criminal defense. Licensed to practice in Texas and Florida, Richards earned her JD from South Texas College of Law.
Mr. Scott MCCOY, Senior Policy Counsel for the Southern Poverty Law Center in Florida. McCoy works out of the Tallahassee office. McCoy specializes in criminal justice reform, juvenile justice reform, children's rights, and LGBT rights. McCoy earned his JD from the Cardozo Law School and has an MA in International Affairs from George Washington University.
Ms. Deborah BRODSKY is the founding director of the Project on Accountable Justice (PAJ) at Florida State University. The PAJ is a collaboration of FSU, Baylor University, St. Petersburg College, and Tallahassee Community College. The PAJ was launched in October 2012 and is dedicated to producing scholarly research to advance public safety. Previously, Brodsky worked 13 years at Florida Tax Watch, a fiscally conservative think tank; was the chief of staff and director of both the Center for Smart Justice and the Center for Educational Performance and Accountability. Brodsky worked for the Florida legislature between 1991 and 1998.
Dr. Amir WHITAKER holds five academic degrees, including a PhD in Educational Psychology from the University of Southern California and JD from the University of Miami. Despite being a product of the juvenile justice system, he has held teaching certifications in Florida, California, and New Jersey. He recently published his autobiography, The KnuckleHead's Guide to Escaping the Trap. His autobiography provides a first-hand account of the devastating effects of mass incarceration and the School-to-Prison Pipeline.
Reverend Jeremy GRAHAM is from New Orleans and was raised in a very religious two-parent home. Graham's dad was the pastor of a small Pentescostal Church. Expelled from both high school and alternative school at age 16, Graham turned to selling drugs. He eventually turned his life around with the help of Pastor Lionel Traylor. In 2010, he graduated from Hinds Community College and now heads a team of life insurance agents in southern Mississippi.
Mr. Jamir PATTERSON is a product of the juvenile and adult criminal justice systems.
UPDATED DATA ON INCARCERATION IN ESCAMBIA COUNTY
An "Issue Commentary" from the Tallahassee-based, free-market advocacy group, The James Madison Insitutute, noted that "Florida prosecutors have virtually unfettered discretion to decide which children to try as adults." While Florida law authorizes a judicial hearing, prosecutors get around that obstacle by "direct filing" complaints. In fact, "more than 98 percent of children tried as adults are 'direct filed'" which means there is "no hearing, due process, oversight or input from a judge." In 2013-2014, Florida transferred more than 1,300 children to adult court, making Florida "the highest number of adult transfers" in the country. In the last five years, Florida has transferred more than 10,000 children to adult courts.
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which has an ongoing investigation of the Escambia County School District, provided updated statistics on juvenile arrests which are integral to the School-to-Prison Pipeline. Superintendent Malcolm THOMAS has refused to meet with the SPLC to discuss the SPLC's findings and recommendations.
The SPLC reported that while Florida leads the nation in student arrests, Escambia County arrests more students for disorderly conduct than 20 combined counties in the Panhandle (see slide below). The SPLC reported that "Escambia's school arrest rate is more than twice the Florida state average." And, three ECSD schools--Warrington Middle School, Pine Forest High School, and Escambia High School--are among the top 25 schools for arrests of juveniles.
Warrington Middle School is Number 6 in the state. Shockingly, the SPLC found that despite "having fewer than 700 students, Warrington Middle arrested the same number of students for disorderly conduct as Miami-Dade County Public Schools, a district with 350,000+ students. A student at Warrington Middle is over 500 times as likely to be arrested for disorderly conduct as a student in Miami."
Pine Forest High School is Number 15 in Florida. During the 2014-2015 school year, Pine Forest "arrested more students...than the entire Santa Rosa County School District. Pine Forest High has 1,706 students while Santa Rosa has 26,738. 100% of disorderly conduct arrests at Pine Forest High were of black students who only comprise 34% of the school."
Escambia High School is Number 25. During the 2014-2015 school year, Escambia High "arrested more students...than the entire Okaloosa County School District. Escambia High has 1,749 students compared to Okaloosa's 30,000+ students." Black students, around 46% of the student body, accounted for 10 of 11 disorderly conduct charges.
Camelot Academy also showed up on the SPLC's radar. The SPLC reported that Camelot's arrest rate is "20 times higher than the state average." The SPLC's research found that "Less than 7 students are arrested per 1,000 throughout Florida. At Camelot, 140 students are arrested per 1,000. Disorderly conduct is the most common arrest."
Camelot Academy, according to CJ's Street Report research, is owned by a Wall Street private equity firm, the Riverside Company. Previously, it had been owned by the Charterhouse Group, another private equity firm. According to the contract signed between the Escambia County School District and Camelot Schools of Florida (previously with "of Pennsylvania"), the school district pays Camelot Schools $1,847,330 per year, or, $9,236.65 per student. Bear in mind, the Escambia County School District, according to a Pensacola News Journal article, spends only $7,178 per student. The difference between what the school district spends per student ($7,178) and what it pays Camelot Schools per student ($9,236) is $2,158 per student. The school district pays the $1.847 million per year, no matter how students are sent to Camelot. But, Camelot can take up to 240 students per year. This represents a potential profit to Camelot Schools of $517,920 per year, on top of its $167,939 "management fee." And, because Camelot Schools is owned by a private equity fund, how much it actually spends per student per year is a corporate secret. But, you could basically bet your mortgage that Camelot Academy's spending per student is below $7,178 per student, probably substantially below.
SCHOOL-TO-PRISON PIPELINE PRESENTATIONS
Dr. Paula MONTGOMERY, League of Women Voters
Mr. Ray HUDKINS, founder of Coffee Party, Pensacola reads Mayor Ashton's Proclamation
Ms. Keyontay HUMPHRIES, ACLU, introduction to Divided America documentary
Ms. HUMPHRIES, no middle school in District 3 in future
On December 3, 2015, the Pensacola chapter of the League of Women's Voters' education committee, the latter chaired by Ms. Paula Montgomery, showed the documentary film, Paper Tigers. The Pensacola News Journal hosted the film and the newspaper's Consumer Experience Director, Ms. Teresa Zwierzchowski, moderated the Question & Answer session following the film. The film showing was also co-sponsored by the National Association of Social Workers. The following information is from the film's press release: "Paper Tigers follows a year in the life of an alternative high school in Walla Walla, WA, that has radically changed its approach to disciplining its students, and in the process has become a promising model for how to break the cycles of poverty, violence and disease that affect families. The film is ideal viewing for educators, administrators, health-care staff, parents, social workers, mentors, and social justice advocates. Paper Tigers is designed to spark dialogue and offer hope to schools and youth struggling with dropout rates, truancy, violence, abuse and drug use." A two-minute trailer of the film is available.
To find out more about Adverse Childhood Experiences teaching and resources, visit ACE's Connection. To get more resources regarding ACE's visit. To take the Adverse Childhood Experiences test and explore its result go here. Following the film, an excellent panel of scientists, social workers, and educators answered questions from the large crowd. The panel included:
Dr. James Arruda, Chair of the Department of Psychology, University of West Florida. In addition to his PhD in Psychology from the University of Rhode Island, he completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in Neuropyschology at Brown University's School of Medicine. Dr. Sam Matthews, a Pensacola native, is Associate Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychology at the University of West Florida and a visiting Professor in Educational Sciences at Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia. He received his PhD in 1980 from the University of Wisconsin. His experience working with community-based projects and using a community participatory research approach has included developing federally funded educational and developmental programs for youth living in high crime and high poverty communities. These programs include: creating a storefront after school program in a subsidized housing complex; developing a community-based mentoring program for youth exposed to domestic violence; developing a classroom-based program to re-engage secondary students who had experienced adverse childhood events that likely led to behavioral challenges; and, working with Legal Services of Northwest Florida, Children's Home Society, Families First Network, and Circuit 1 of the Division of Children and Families (and other agencies) to support LGBTQ youth who have been removed from or run away from their families of origin due to responses to the youth's sexual orientation.
Dr. Dione King is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Work, University of West Florida. She has degrees from the University of Georgia and Spelman College. Her career began as a middle school teacher in Baton Rouge which led her into social work. As a social worker, she has worked with children and families experiencing domestic violence and homelessness, as well as those within the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Her research examines adolescent and young adult risk behaviors including substance use and mental health symptomology, as well as minority health disparities. Her research has received financial support from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the Verizon Wireless Foundation. She is also honored to have been recognized as the 2015 National Association of Social Workers Northwest Florida unit Social Work Educator of the Year. Dr. Lisa Joyner is the coordinator of Student Services for the Escambia County School District. She earned her PhD in Education in Administrative Studies. She began her career in 1999 with the school district as a Social Studies teacher. She has a Master's degree in counseling and psychology. Her degree enabled her to work as a high school guidance counselor for nine years. She was then promoted to her current coordinator position. As the district's coordinator, she oversees five departments: school counselors, psychological services, health services, school social workers, and positive behavior support. Ms. Esi Shannon, is the Assistant Principal at Escambia High School for Student Services. One of her responsibilities is overseeing the high school's mentoring program. Ms. Shannon has been an educator for 19 years and earned a B.S. degree in History Education, English Education, and a Master's of Education in Leadership. She taught in private schools for four years, managed tutoring services for eight years, partnering with Santa Rosa County public schools. She has been in public education with the Escambia County School District since 2007. She has worked in urban communities in church ministry in Pensacola, Florida, and Mobile, Alabama, for twenty-six years. (Disclosure: I mentor three youths under her direction). The following three video segments in order of presentation are of the Question & Answer session following the screening of the Paper Tigers movie.
Introduction On October 26, 2015, the Pensacola branch of the League of Women Voters and head of their Education Committee, Mrs. Paula Montgomery, in cooperation with the American Civil Liberties Union, the Escambia Youth Justice Coalition, and the Coffee Party, held the second panel discussion of the School-to-Prison Pipeline. Ms. Lisa Nellessen-Lara, executive editor of the Pensacola News Journal, moderated.
The first panel discussion hosted by the League of Women Voters, held on August 31, 2015, provides a broad overview of the issue in Escambia County--the country's number one county in terms of incarcerating children. The discussion this time was more narrowly focused on the criminal justice system in Escambia County and how it deals with juvenile offenders. Escambia County leads the free world, according to the ACLU's Ms. Keyontay Humphries, in incarcerating juveniles. As part of the panel discussion, the sponsors showed a 17-minute TedX Jacksonville Talk by attorney Hank Coxe. The main point of the video, "When will your child be eligible for parole," is that while juveniles may know the difference between right and wrong, their brains have not physically developed to control their behavior. The criminal justice system nationwide, but particularly in Escambia County, is unprepared to deal with juveniles who may commit violent crimes or other serious crimes as juveniles. Instead, they are transferred into the adult criminal justice system, put into traumatic solitary confinement, and given adult-level punishments. For a further discussion of Hank Coxe's video presentation with a transcript, see the discussion between Hank Coxe and attorney Gray Thomas at Metro Jacksonville. Tonight's panelists were Ms. Kelly Richards, a veteran juvenile Public Defender in Escambia County; Ms. Majorie Anders, Assistant State Attorney and another juvenile veteran; Mr. Greg Marcille, Chief Assistant State Attorney; Reverend Rick Branch from the downtown United Methodist Church; Mr. Spencer Wease, a juvenile offender who was rescued from the system by Pathways for Change; and, Ms. Tania Galloni, main lawyer for the Florida branch of the Southern Poverty Law Center. What follows are the presentations in the chronological order of the event allowing the reader to experience the event as it unfolded. BEGIN VIDEO ESSAY
Ms. Paula Montgomery, League of Women's Voters, Introduction
Pensacola Mayor Hayward, Remarks and Proclamation
Pensacola Police Officer Carl Reeves, PPD Update for Chief Alexander
American Civil Liberties Union, Ms. Keyontay Humphries, Overview
Pensacola Public Defender, Ms. Kelly Richards
Assistant State Attorney, Ms. Marjorie Anders
Chief Assistant State Attorney, Mr. Greg Marcille
United Methodist Church, Reverend Rick Branch
Pathways for Change participant, Mr. Spencer Wease
Southern Poverty Law Center attorney, Ms. Tania Galloni
Chief State Attorney Marcille's response to SPLC attorney Ms. Galloni
Pathways for Change Mr. Wease on how Pathways changed his life
SPLC attorney Ms. Galloni on 14-year old African American youth sentenced as adult
Public Defender Richards on budget and time constraints affecting juvenile justice
State Attorney Marcille on race not being factor in disposition of cases
ACLU's Ms. Humphries answering question on lack of diversity of panel
State Attorney Anders and ACLU's Ms. Humphries on "pantsing incident"
SPLC's attorney Ms. Galloni on juveniles' blocked access to military
State Attorney Anders response to Ms. Galloni
SPLC attorney Ms. Galloni response to Ms. Anders
Question, to what degree are public officials responsible?
Nearly all panelists comment on the role of public officials
ACLU's Ms. Humphries and Councilman Underhill comment
Mr. Bill Caplinger thanks Mr. Franco and staff for superb dinner and service
